The girls celebrated their birthday together and chose to have a dress-up party at a local store. We planned the party for when all of our friends (out-of-town ones too) could come. Everyone brought a doll/friend and they and their doll dressed for the party. Then they all shared snacks and giggles. The girls really enjoyed all the fun and being “grown-up”. While they are quickly growing up at least we can slow down enough to have these wonderful moments of fun. For the party theme they chose a Pink-Paris party.  Thanks friends for joining us for the fun.

All of our friends together again!!

Birthday Sisters

Princess Julia in white with TWO tiaras! Why pick one when you can have more.

Princess Emily ready to strut her stuff. She is not our shy kid.

A pretty cupcake ready to celebrate.

The dolls get to eat a bit too. Here is the yummy eraser cupcake for the dolls.

Before all the fun started we snapped a photo. They are pretty pleased that the fun will be starting soon. Emily brought her Emily doll and Julia brought her doll she named Julia.

So glad to get to spend some time with friends!!

Sharing the fun the best part. Pure joy!

We keep counting up the years on our little one. While she is still our little one, she is not so little anymore. For her 7th birthday her biggest wish was just to spend it with her family. During lunch we celebrated in her class with cupcakes. Then for dinner we met up with all of the Grandparents for a little asian food. There were lots of gifts and even more grins from the happy girl. The birthday was a joy, just like she is. We love you big girl!

Dinner is always fun when you get to watch it being made for you. Julia was not only hungry, but willing to try some new things. She decided shrimp was great. She asked mama if we could have shrimp at home because it was SO good. Mama told her that she didn’t know how to cook shrimp well so it probably wouldn’t happen. Her response was that it looked pretty easy to her after watching the chef do it. 😉 What good answer can a mom give to that one.

When asked what kind of birthday cake/cupcake she wanted it seemed like an easy decision to have a strawberry cake. She doesn’t love chocolate like her mama does. Her favorite color (pink) and favorite fruit (strawberries) come together really well in a strawberry cake.

Now that these Grandparents are now Tennessee Grandparents it is easier to make it to our birthday dinners.

The original Tennessee Grandparents

Hello, Hello Kitty! Julia has quite a family of kitties. Emily gave her a new one. The rest of them had to come out to meet the new friend.

Loving sisters (most of the time)!

Emily wrote a birthday card to Julia. Her advice is priceless! “Dear Julia, I hope you’ve have a great night. So now you are 7 you get a bible and more, but most importantly I want to warn you how much she (mom) makes you help in the house.” Mom had better make sure that happens.

The girls celebrated their birthdays (Emily 8 – January, Julia 6 – October) in another joint party. It did not take too much convincing to get them to agree to a tea party with their favorite dolls and friends. The party was at a local shop that specializes in this type of party. It involved dress-up time including a quick hair up-do and accessories, a photo shoot, tea party, birthday treats, and gift time. The party was a lot of fun. The girls loved it and their mama loved it. The party’s theme was inspired by the movie Frozen.

Emily’s chosen look for her and her "Emily" doll. Her dress was white with blue/green accents, blue/green gloves and boa, and white heeled shoes.

Julia’s chosen look was all pink. Every item was pink with the exception of the clear shoes that lit-up with each step. The friend she brought with her was her Minnie Mouse.

This was a place setting for each girl. The doll friends each got a table setting too. The Olaf dessert was the special touch the girls picked for the party. The tea was pink lemonade.

Our table filled with seven lovely princesses waiting for the birthday wishes to be made. Thanks friends for joining us and making the party such a success!

Princess Emily checking out her new look.

Princess Julia taking good care of her special friend, Minnie.

The girls finishing the party off with holding court with their gifts.

Fall has come and with it comes our littlest’s birthday. This year marks the sixth celebration. Wow! Every year there is such a change, but this year has some of the biggest we have seen. First and foremost is that Julia is a school-girl. Kindergarten has been a joy for her. The second and just as huge is the explosion in communication we hear from her. She asserts herself into any conversation she can, she learned the art of interrupting Emily’s stream of words, she is learning the first sight words, and big words are no longer intimidating. Just yesterday she informed her mama, "you misunderstood what I said". For our late verbal bloomer this is such a big deal!

She loves picking out her own clothes and has learned the love of all things shoes. Her play involves a lot of imaginary play and involves small figures. Her collection of homes, schools, playgrounds, and clinics for the figures continues to grow and brings her delight. School has been incorporated into this play and there is a lot of learning, rules, and lines.

Facial expressions are also a difference between the girls. Emily seems to have her normal mood faces, but Julia has those and more. Taking photos of her is a challenge when she is wanting to pull from the less standard smile face. But on the other hand having a collection of different smiles, pouts, grins, and pure silliness is fun too.

We love our girl for all of her new skills and years we have been blessed to have her with us! Happy Birthday, Julia!

To say that Emily was excited about her birthday would be an understatement. She counted down to the day, picked where we would go and eat, gave her suggestions for gifts, picked her cake design, and put up with her mama’s teasing about not getting gifts. Mama and Julia joined her for a birthday lunch at school. We shared tiny ice cream cones with her class.

She requested a pink butterfly cake. Emily was delighted with the outcome and assisted with the decorating. 

Making her wish.

Julia was excited about Emily’s birthday. One morning on the way to school Mama teased Emily that when you turn a birthday with a seven in it you don’t get gifts that year. It was quite the discussion. Emily didn’t believe it, but she put her heart into the reasons that included gifts in the birthday. Interesting enough Julia never joined in the conversation. She and Mama were about to go and buy her gift for Emily after dropping Emily off, so she knew information to the contrary of what Mama was saying. She is learning a teasing side to life also. After dropping Emily off at school Julia had several comments that she had saved and shared with Mama.

Emily was right, there were gifts! What a fun day we had with all that we did. We love you big girl!

We wondered what gift God was going to give us, we wondered about what kind of parents we would be, we wondered if we were making good choices, we wondered who her friends would be, we wondered what personality she would develop, we wondered if she would use long words like her Daddy, we wondered if she would order her toys like her Mama, we wondered . . .

We still have a list of things we wonder about, but we also marvel at the great gift God has given us. Happy Birthday to our WONDERful big 7-year-old!